Gardening, anyone?
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Divine- I'm so glad you found your joy in the garden again. I love the pic of the mulched bed. It is beautiful and serene. You have a good eye.
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Lucy- WOW!!! What a bonus in that bag of mulch! Quite avolunteer!
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Hi friends- sorry I have been absent here for a few weeks. March has been a busy month with company in town in mid March, then was out of town over Easter weekend. And then there has been work and fighting through a VERY bad spring cold, which is finally starting to lift. I have been anxious to get back in the gardens.
On my way back from work tonight, I stopped at Lowes for some new hoses and sprayers and found the prettiest bird bath (will take a picture once I have it in the right place in the back yard garden). I got my first pansies and johnny jump-ups and going to plant those in my pots out front tomorrow. It has been a mild winter here since late January, but been colder lately (couple rounds of spring snow, maybe tonight too). So still too early to do much more than pansies. Lots of things greening up and trees blooming more now, along with shrubs and other perrenials.
Oh the garden center at Lowes was filled with so many beautiful things tonight. It got me excited about my spring gardening now on the horizon!
Love the posts of the interesting spring blooms and surprises from the mulch. Keep em coming friends!
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Yes, seeing those garden centers spring back to life (a little,pun there) always lifts the spirits!
We are fighting a bit with the weather. We get one or two mild days then another chill. I've taken advantage of the warmer days and gotten yard work done but it's hit and miss. On Tuesday, I spent the day in the yard while it was 70 degrees and tomorrow there's a possibility we'll get a ground covering of snow. At least by this time of year, it doesn't stick around.
I was excited to finally see signs of life on a hydrangea bush I planted last year. I got it in the ground late and didn't know if it'd take. Sure enough, tho, this week I saw beautiful tiny leaf buds forming on the branches. Years ago I hated hydrangeas for some reason, now I absolutely love them, this is the first one I ever planted.
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Divine- I know what you mean about hydrangeas. Maybe an acquired taste. I planted a small oakleaf hydrangea last fall. I see some fat buds ...... Thrilled.
In the meantime, from the kitchen window this morning, I spied some little green balls all over a tree that looked like this a month ago:
Now it looks like this! Cherries!
They look like little limes, absolutely covering the tree. Sorry for the poor photo quality. Interestingly, I have two larger cherry trees, just starting to bloom now, a month later. I'm assuming they are different varieties. I wasn't here last year, so it's all an unfurling surprise.
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Hi everyone, Devine told me about this thread, and I have been lurking for the past week or so. I have enjoyed all your pictures. I think that spring comes just a bit later for me here in NH than it does for some of you. I did rake my biggest garden this week. There are lots of little green leaves popping up through the soil. It is always exciting to see that spring is on its way. I love perennials, so little to do to get them up and blooming each year. My tulips and daffodils are just two to four inch leaves right now, no flowers yet, but I did receive some beautiful tulips for Easter last week. I will cheat and post pictures of those. The tulips in my garden will not be nearly as pretty. Two years ago the deer ate all my tulips as soon as they bloomed.
Do any of you grow vegetables or fruits? I usually grow basic things like beans, peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, and summer squash. I have better luck with some than with others. My grandson wants me to try watermelon this year. If anyone has hints for doing that successfully, I am open to all ideas.
I look forward to your posts throughout the spring and summer.
Lynne
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I think watermelon takes a long hot summer to do well. Check with local nurseries; maybe someone has made a hybrid that grows well there.
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Glad you're joining us, 50s girl. My husband is the vegetable gardener of the family. He has four raised beds in our small back yard. I'm the flower gardener. He plants cabbage, lettuce, radishes, peppers, cukes, tomatoes and a few more kinds of veggies, really packs a lot in those beds. It takes so much more tending to than perennial flower gardening, as you mentioned, 50s. Yourtulips are glorious.
I agree with wren, check locally to see if others have success wth a certain type of watermelon in your area, maybe try to get some planted indoors in pots now to transplant when the weather is right, and a watermelon that takes less days to ripen might be what you're looking for.
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Welcome 50s girl- there are sisters here who have large gardens and grow veggies too. As we come into more of the spring here in the northern hemisphere, I expect those ladies may surface more to this thread. I know we have some sisters here from "down under" and they are in fall now. I love seeing the plants from around the world!
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haven't read yet but might be of interest for some of us.
Also earlier today out my bedroom window. Happy Saturday!
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Beautiful color, Balthus! Hibiscus with anenome might be a first for me! And is that a lovely little boxwood in the pot? Great view to wake up with!
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Well I got out into the back yard and gardens this evening and finally got the pampas grass pruned. It got HUGE last year and had quite a bit to do , but it looks so much better and now room for lots to grow in that area. One has to be very careful with that grass as IT BITES! I put on rubber kitchen gloves to clean up the mess. I have some more yard clean up to do tomorrow.
I decided I am going to buy myself a nice patio set this year. I had some friends give me their used one about 12 years ago when I moved into this house, but it has long needed to be replaced and saw some things at Lowes I liked. Unfortunately, the on line reviews for the set I liked were not good (said the chairs rusted out) so I am looking for something a bit better and may check some other stores in town too. I plan to do more entertaining out there this summer.
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MONIS– I miss the deer we had at our mountain house. They
left the vinca and the daffodils alone.TEKA – are the tulip and crocus tops covered with snow again?
I don’t have bird crap on my car but it sure is all over my garden bark and
yard art!ANANDA – love the landscaping! I adore lilac, but the
fragrance gets to both me and DH. We brought some home from a fundraiser in the
mountains, and had to pull over halfway home and chuck them out the window of
the car because we couldn’t breathe. But
they are so beautiful!STELLAMARIS – you
must have great weather up there to grow all sorts of things! Envious….SCOTTIE – the only cardinals we have are carved wooden ones!
But we do have about a dozen hummers that live here year round. I have two
feeders in the front, one on the side, and one in the back. Someone is always
there – we’re the 24 hour diner. I also have a bird feeder with shelled and
chipped sunflower seeds in it that the sparrows, goldfinches, house finches, and
doves love. I used to use finch socks, but they prefer the sunflower seeds over
the nijer seeds. DANG! Good job with the rocks. It took me four years to get
back enough strength to heft flagstone.DIVINEMRSM – with such a large yard, we decided to fill in
all the blank spaces with “yard art” so that we’d have fewer plants to take
care of. Another use for a birdbath top is to make a cute arrangement with
succulents, or plant it with moss and make a fairy garden with little fences,
etc. Our only problem is whatever we put plants in, we have to hook up the drip
system to. At 110 in the summer, everything fries without regular watering.
Nice job on the bench, by the way.Hi, TWOHOBBIES…. Hi, WREN……
JACKBIRDIE – we cut some lattice in half and wired it around
our front porch post. It will bloom with purple clematis soon. It died back
during the winter, but the vines have already reached the top and the buds are
ready. I so wish we could grow sweet peas and wisteria! Cool bird video….LUCY55 – love the Emperor Candle – how unusual! Do you know
the name of that potted plant? Many Australian plants do well here due to our
hot dry weather. I’ve got two ginkos in pots that I’ve moved three times and
are now in pots waiting for their final home. Hmmmm – solar lights IN the pots…
hadn’t thought of that!JLBEANS – the ice covered branches are pretty… although I'm sure a new
round of winter is not what anyone wants…Happy Birthday BALTHUS and MR BALTHUS! Happy walking in
those beautiful grounds! Your yard is looking very colorful!JAZZYGIRL – don’t think I have heard of Lenten Roses –
pretty! I go nuts over all the ads for flowers in the Sunday papers. I think a
trip to the garden center is in order. You are BRAVE to prune the Pampas Grass!50'SGIRL – my daffodils came and went two months ago. I
deadheaded the flowers, and tied the tall green stems in knots to get the last
bit of chlorophyll down to the bulbs til next year. My nana taught me to do
that. Does anyone else tie their bulb shoots after blooming?0 -
We tie them. They need the leaves as food for next year and they start looking ratty. When they're tied, something moderately tall will hide them. DH has always done the gardening and he can't now due to leg problems. If anyone sees an article on how to turn an English cottage garden into low maintenance, please let me know.
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Finally a sign of spring this week. Of course rhey got snowed on yesterday and today it is 70.
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Two hobbies - pretty daffodils - they are my favourite flower. Mine are still not out out and we are getting 25 cm of snow tonight. Ugh.
Blessings - I don't "tie" them but do pretty much the same.My grandma taught me to braid the leaves and stems together. If you weave it in at the end it comes out looking rather pretty.
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ARGHH! I wanted to post some garden pics this morning, but a week ago, Windows 10 downloaded itself onto my computer without my permission.
Yesterday, I tried to upload some pics from the SD card in my camera, and Windows 10 keeps telling me there are NO PICS on the card to upload!
Spent over an hour on Microsoft Technical Help Chat, downloaded new SD drivers, rebooted computer, lost chat. Tried the upload again, still not working. Clicked on the link that the Tech gave me in case we got disconnected; it went to a new person who wanted to start completely over.
Felt like those commercials where the tops of peoples' heads explode!!!
Oh, well, I'll find a way. In the meantime, thanks for the advice, and beautiful pics!
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My neighbors taught me to braid the daffodil and tulip leaves, but mostly I ignore them. My challenge has been the naturalized daffodils. By the time my lawn guy understood that he was not to mow them down, most disappeared. Now, he slaloms around the survivors. Looks kind of weird, but I think he enjoys it.
Last summer, for the first time ever, I dug up and replanted my tulips, after separating the baby bulbs from the originals. They're all back (two to three inches tall). To protect them from mice, I planted them in those net bags onions come in. This year, i'm thinking of using coffee cans, as the roots stay pretty much within their bulb size. Anyone try that?
I love the spring photos, ladies. Luckily, I have not yet figured out how to download pics, but if I had, you'd see all my spring babies peeking up through white stuff. Stupid spring snowstorm!
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Yes, I feel like I am in a holding pattern due to the weather. Snow yesterday, rain today. Wednesday is looking good and I'm hoping to get out and mulch more of the flower beds. Lowes had the mulch on sale so dh and I picked up a bunch saving me over $20
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Yikes - supposed to be 91 degrees tomorrow! And the guy behind us has not even started planting his "replacement" trees... right now I have old umbrellas providing shade to my Encore azaleas.... and I sneak out and give all the ferns drinks every night....
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The spring weather's been crazy this year. Yesterday, 65 degrees, I was able to mulch more of the flower beds. The next two days, snow forcasted! It's the latest in spring I can remember having snow. It's okay, tho, because I'm ahead of the game with getting a jump on the weeds. The yard work takes a lot out of me, so I pace myself to get it done. I'm hoping if I get the weeds knocked out so early, they won't try to take over with a vengeance by the middle of June.
Right about now, the forsythia start dropping their glorious flowers which always reminds me of this little poem I memorized from a Yankee Peddler Magazine:
Forsythia,
For goodness sakes!
What's the rush?
Apply the brakes!You toss your springtime gold away
like children
on allowance day.0 -
DMM - Love the poem! Now you take care not to overdo it. It's so easy to get overheated and fatigued out in the yard... take regular breaks, drink lots of water, sit and relax. Do pace yourself, hard as it might be....
The Landscape Designer just left. She was appalled at the removal of all the beautiful redwoods in back, but gave us some good alternative suggestions.
We'll start by moving the Encore Azaleas to underneath the remaining Redwood (on our side.) Luckily they are in huge cobalt pots on drip, and we can just unhook the hoses and hand-truck them over a few feet and re-hook them up.
As for filling in the fenceline with new shade trees, she warned us that our landscaper is booked through June. We did that last year, when we pulled out all our thirsty plants, and put in all heat- and drought-tolerant plants. Our city was on a very restricted watering schedule, so DH and I were out there in our jammies giving all the new plants drinks in the middle of the night so they wouldn't fry or die.
We weren't really cheating... we have rain barrels in the front and back. Not for rain - we usually never get any. But we do capture our sink and tub water in buckets as we're waiting for it to get hot. Also, our water lines in the house are just below our ROOF.... meaning that boiling hot water comes out of the faucet on a hot day. Takes about 20 minutes to cool off, so all of that water goes directly in to buckets, then into the rain barrel. Each barrel has two spigots - one halfway up to fill watering cans, and one at the bottom to hook a hose to.
Anyway, we've pretty much decided on Podocarpus trees along the south fence, as they are evergreen and very low maintenance. But the new neighbor is just now getting around to putting in his concrete wall. Then we have to wait for him to pick out new trees, and have them planted. By that time, it will already be summer here, and not a good time to plant. SO.... we get that ugly view until September or October.
Oh well, if those are our only problems, life is good!
Hope everyone is having a great gardening week!
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blooming in Oregon today:
Smells so nice!
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Divine. . .I know what you mean about the weather. We started spring at home in early March with the redbuds, then cherry trees and my dogwoods which were in full bloom when we left for our Vacay last weekend. We've traveled up north in stages and now at Mammoth Cave KY. Redbuds have just bloomed and a cold front hit us. Hoping for spring weather when we get back home tomorrow.
Scottie
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Katy.. Just beautiful.!
Blessings.. Have fun designing your new garden.. I use the solar lights in the pots as accents.. I even have a couple of solar spot lights that I shine up the trees.. One looks really good in the base of a Golden Cane. The solar lights are such fun and brings the garden to life at night ( I think anyway) .There's one in the pot in the photo I'm about to post.
A photo of a Daisy plant just coming out..it normally flowers in perfect time for Mother's Day. But a few weeks early this year.
Devine.. I love your poem :-) and very clever to of you mesmerised it..!! I can't remember a thing 😱
Brookside.. Braid the leaves? Sounds interesting!!
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Lucy- what a great idea! I brought some solar lights from my last house and they are collecting dust in the shed. I didn't want to put them in the border because the light would shine into my bedroom, but on the deck at night in pots, perhaps some upwards as you suggest, it might be perfect! Thank you!
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Great idea with the lights in the potted plants! Thanks.
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Thanks Ladies.. I have tried to get a photo of the solar spot light shining up the Golden Cane branches.. Hard to get a good photo on my phone at night , plus there is another pot in front blocking the view.. but here goes..
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Here's another photo of one of the solar lights on a little table under our front eves..
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Lucy- charming! Where's the wine?
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